The Easiest Way To Back Up A Trailer, Even If You’ve Never Done It Before

Long before I was ever the beautiful car writeress you see before you today, I was once an intern at Watkins Glen International out in rural New York. I used to tow an enclosed trailer containing a NASCAR Camry all around the state, setting it up at various car shows and gas stations to hawk tickets to the Glen’s season-ending NASCAR race. Before I got the job, though, I’d only ever driven a trailer once — a much smaller and lighter trailer that I never had to back into a parking spot. I had to learn fast. 

Within an hour of messing around in a parking lot, I had the basics down. Within a few trips, I could back all 20 feet of that car trailer through a standard parking spot. Fine control of a trailer isn’t actually all that difficult to learn, it just takes a little bit of technique and a lot of practice, and I’m here to tell you how to easily back up a trailer even if you’ve never done it before.

This is how a lot of people think of backing up a trailer: You turn the front wheels one way, but you’re backing up so it’s reversed, but that makes the back of your car go the way you actually mean, but that means the trailer is reversed and goes the other way. It’s way too complicated — just look at all those arrows. There are five per turning diagram!

Rather than thinking of directions, laterally left and right, the better way to think about backing up with a trailer is to think about rotation. Side to side means there’s a lot to memorize, while spinning is more intuitive. Your truck-trailer assembly has two big points of rotation: The center of your truck, and the trailer hitch. Remember these two, remember that they rotate in opposite directions, and you’ll have a much easier time reversing your trailer. 

Turning your steering wheel rotates your truck around that center pivot point. As your truck rotates, the hitch rotates in the opposite direction. That hitch rotation decides the direction in which your trailer will move. None of your wheels behind the front two actually rotate, they don’t turn with the steering wheel, so you’ll have to work out the knock-on effects of your turns through those two pivot points. 

Keep that rotation in mind, remember not to make your turns so sharp that your truck and trailer combo binds up, and you’ll be set. That’s the theory, at least — to make it work for you in real life, there’s no replacement for practice. Find yourself the biggest parking lot you can, hook up a trailer — even a U-Haul rental, just to start — and you’ll be expertly parking your tow rig in no time.